1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vertical takeoff and landing apparatus, and more particularly, to a small one capable of carrying a few persons thereon.
2. Description of the Related Art
Dangerous places such as disaster sites or the like for people to access can be explored or surveyed by using an unmanned flying craft or vehicle as described in a first patent document (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No 11-115896) for example. Such a flying craft has a rotary blade or blades, and is able to perform motions such as horizontal movements, vertical movements, rotation in the yaw direction, etc. Accordingly, it is considered that a variety of kinds of information can be gathered by using such a flying craft as required.
Even in this case, however, minute counteractive actions or effective countermeasures might not sometimes be able to be taken unless someone actually visits the site to be surveyed. Thus, the development of a safe, easy-to-operate, small flying machine capable of being used for manned flight in such a case is earnestly desired.
On the other hand, as a vertical takeoff and landing apparatuses carrying one-person thereon, there have hitherto been known a rocket belt, which was used in the demonstration of the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, a millennium jet (trade name: Solo Trek) employing a reciprocating engine, etc.
These apparatuses had unique airframes or bodyworks different from those of aircrafts in general, and they were constructed in a manner as to be worn by a person. That is, the rocket belt is a backpack type small device, and is constructed such that pipes such as rocket jet nozzles are exposed or extended from the right and left sides thereof, so that it can make flight by injecting high pressure gases obtained through oxidization of hydrogen peroxide from these nozzles.
The millennium jet is larger in size than the rocket belt as mentioned above, and is equipped with a takeoff and landing gear such as wheels, etc., and is constructed such that an operator or pilot gets on board by fitting oneself into the inside of its upright airframe. In addition, propellers of a relatively large size are arranged at the upper right and left sides above the pilot's head, so that they are driven to revolve by means of a reciprocating engine, thereby making the airframe take off the ground. In this form of flying vehicle or craft using the reciprocating engine, fuel mileage is good, enabling a flight of about two hours.
Moreover, as a further form, there is a disk type device (i.e., model name VZ-1) developed by Bell Aerospace Co., in which an operator or pilot gets on the thin, columnar main body of its airframe with a built-in propeller propulsion device.
The one-person vertical takeoff and landing apparatuses as described above do not have selfstability or autostability such as that of airplanes or helicopters, so the flight posture or attitude thereof collapses or changes greatly if posture or attitude control is not carried out.
Therefore, in the past, in order to hold the flight posture of such a flying craft in a good condition, the pilot had to intentionally move his body so as to change the position of the center of gravity of the craft in an appropriate manner. That is, the pilot maneuvered the flying craft in the following manner. That is, in order for the craft to hover in the air, the pilot shifted his weight or center of gravity to the side opposite to the direction in which the airframe of the craft tilts, so as to correct the tilt, and in addition, when the pilot wanted to go in any arbitrary direction, he moved his weight or body toward that direction.
However, the method of shifting the body or weight of the pilot is extremely low in response, so it is impossible to perform detailed or minute attitude control. In addition, there arises a characteristic that the airframe is caused to momentarily move, due to a reaction generated in the course of the movement of the body or weight, in a direction opposite to the direction in which it should be originally controlled to be moved. Thus, the control due to the body or weight shift lacks practical use, and its improvement is desired.
In the conventional manned apparatuses as referred to above, it is necessary to solve the following problems.
Firstly, since there is provided no means for protecting passengers at the time of emergency landing or the like, it is necessary to obviate the fear of passenger injuries even in a small accident.
Secondly, since they are constructed such that a propeller slipstream and an air intake port are oriented directly toward the pilot, an extremely strong wind will blows against the pilot while flying. Therefore, in case of low temperatures or the like, the temperature of the pilot will be rapidly deprived so that the pilot might sometimes be subjet to frostbite, etc. Accordingly, it is required to improve such a situation.
Thirdly, since a fuel tank is fixedly attached to the airframe, the fuel in the fuel tank is caused to move due to the tilting of the airframe, so that a defective or poor fuel supply might be caused or the fuel might be left in the fuel tank without being fully used up. Thus, fuel control is important in view of the limited flight time of small flying crafts.
Fourthly, in cases where a flying craft is hovering near a building, it is likely to make contact with or too far away from the building because of the influences of the instability factor of the airframe itself, crosswinds and the like. This is a serious problem in fire rescue operations in high-rise buildings, etc., and improvements thereof are strongly required.